KEY DEVELOPMENTS
The U.N. estimates that some 11.3 million people throughout the Sahel remain food insecure, while approximately 1.5 million children are at risk of severe acute malnutrition. Although pockets of food insecurity and malnutrition will likely persist until at least the arrival of harvests in October, overall food security conditions in the region remain stable, according to the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET).
Improving security conditions and recent successful presidential elections in Mali are enabling increased humanitarian access and spontaneous returns in the north, as well as the country’s gradual resumption of trade with neighboring countries. However, ongoing insecurity in Nigeria continues to negatively affect the region by disrupting regional market dynamics and causing internal and cross-border population displacement.
Since June 1, the U.S. Government (USG) has provided more than $44 million to assist food-insecure and conflict-affected populations in the Sahel through emergency food assistance and humanitarian coordination support, as well as interventions in the sectors of agriculture, humanitarian protection, livelihoods, nutrition, and WASH.
